Pat Greene, Rancid goings on as €50,000 of public money to be spent behind closed doors.

Old Boys

In a cloak and dagger move Drogheda Councillors are to discuss the spending of €50,000 of public money allocated to them in secret, behind closed doors. At Monday night’s meeting in Barlow house Drogheda, due to some objections, Labour Party Mayor Paul Bell insisted that according to the rules the spending of the €50,000 of public money must be done in secret. Mayor Bell was corrected by civil servant Mary T Daly, an executive of Louth County Council, who interjected and informed the Mayor he was wrong in asserting this, as Dundalk Council had held their meeting in public.
Pat Greene leader of Direct Democracy Ireland stated he is:

disgusted and appalled at the rancid goings on in a modern so-called democratic institution, called the Drogheda division of the Louth Municipal Council. Yet again we have the usual suspects from this undemocratic pact colluding to feather their own nests and making decisions on the spending of public monies behind closed doors. One must ask what it is that they have to hide?

With this tiny group of just 6 councillors in control of how the €50,000 will be spent, the question that has to be raised is ‘Will the money be used to further Fine Gael and Labour’s party election campaign?’

In a system of Direct Democracy (in part as our 1922 constitution actually had provision for), this sort of saga simply would not happen. We believe this is the reason the “old” political parties and their media hacks will not even discuss the power of Direct Democracy.

The Councillors who voted In Favour of holding the meeting in secret were:

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Anthony McIntyre

Former IRA volunteer and ex-prisoner, spent 18 years in Long Kesh, 4 years on the blanket and no-wash/no work protests which led to the hunger strikes of the 80s. Completed PhD at Queens upon release from prison. Left the Republican Movement at the endorsement of the Good Friday Agreement, and went on to become a journalist. Co-founder of The Blanket, an online magazine that critically analyzed the Irish peace process. Lead researcher for the Belfast Project, an oral history of the Troubles.